Team V
by Free.Spirit140
Summary: Just a random one shot I've been thinking about and needed to write down. When Ethan is bitten Benny starts to wonder what will become of their friendship. Rated T just in case.


Benny sighed, eyes focused on the school entrance as he stood alone in the hallway. Ethan was late. Ethan was never late. Mostly because before now, Ethan and Benny had been walking to school together every morning.

Ever since the incident last week Ethan had been M.I.A every morning when Benny went to pick him up, his parents telling Benny that Sarah, or Rory, or even Erica on one occasion, had come to pick him up two hours before. Benny had held his tongue for this long, refusing to bring up the topic in case it sparked negative emotions. But now he had had enough.

A week ago, Ethan had been bitten by a vampire. It wasn't strictly the vampire's fault to be fair, but Benny couldn't help but harbour a grudge towards him. The vampire had been extremely sick, according to the council. They had been concerned that it was a disease that had been caused by being too close to the lucifractor at the time of the magical explosion, and no one was willing to get near him. The little vampire child, Benny never bothered to learn her name, had ordered Benny and Ethan to go into the room that she ever so nicely called 'contamination chamber', what a lovely name, and treat him.

They had protested of course, stating that they had no idea what they were doing and that they were in no way medically inclined, but the child would hear nothing of it ("You are a spellmaster and you are a nerd, this should be easy for you"), and it was hard to say no to a child that had two large, not to mention fanged, guards standing behind her. Apparently, her guards had returned and she had opted to forgive their betrayal so she could ditch the very unhelpful, not to mention unintimidating, Rory.

So, with nothing but a seer and a few spell books Benny had snuck out of his grandma's room, they were sent to the sick vampire's aid. What had happened next was a bit of a blur, Benny remembered yelling, from both Ethan and himself, casting a spell in a last-ditch attempt to keep an insane vampire from jumping on him and his friend, and then darkness.

Later, Ethan would tell him that whatever illness the insane fanged man had had, it had affected his brain and hunger and had caused him to go into a ravenous rage. Whatever the council had used to restrain him must have broken, and it had been Game Over as soon as Benny and Ethan entered the room. Benny had been knocked unconscious by a chair that had been unceremoniously thrown at his head, his spell had gone out of control and hit the wall instead of the vampire he had been aiming for, and Ethan had been bitten just before help arrived.

Ever since then Ethan had been different, showing up late to school, didn't hang out with Benny after school and had, according to Jane, barely been home. He may or may not have had to bribe her into giving that information.

Benny got it, really, he did, being a fledgling must be hard, hell Benny wasn't even sure Ethan was a fledgling. As far as he knew Ethan had yet to go to Grandma to get any blood substitute and after a week he would have needed something to eat and without human blood, or substitute, Ethan probably wasn't going to live.

They had been expecting this, Benny and Ethan. When they were friends with vamps, and fought the supernatural on a near daily basis, you had to anticipate being bitten at some point. Well, today was the day Benny found out why Ethan was being so weird.

That's why Benny was standing by his and Ethan's lockers using a well-practiced invisibility spell… if the definition of well-practiced was 'practiced in his room for three hours a night for the last four days', to hide himself in plain sight. Oh god, he hoped that their vampire senses didn't pick up on him.

And finally, ten minutes after first bell, a gust of wind signalled their arrival. Four figures were now standing in the hall with him, heading directly towards Benny who quickly moved out of the way of their lockers. They were laughing, acting like there was nothing wrong, like this was how it had always been, four vampires and no Benny. Rory was basically vibrating, bouncing on the balls of his feet as Ethan rummaged through his locker and Erica and Sarah headed to their own classes.

"Rory, calm down will you?" Ethan laughed as he grabbed a few books from his locker.

"I can't help it! I can't believe the council are going to pay you!" Rory was grinning "What are you going to spend the money on? New video games?"

"I'm not sure yet Ror, I think it might be suspicious to my parents if I'm suddenly rolling in new stuff when they haven't increased my allowance." Ethan sighed "Should I tell them about any of this?"

"WHAT?!" Rory sounded like it was an insane suggestion, to be fair, Benny agreed "Dude, no. way. Can you imagine what they'd say?! You'd be grounded for like, a month! And you'd have to tell them how it happened, and then why the council called on you, and then-"

"I get it. I'll have to explain literally every paranormal thing that has ever happened." Ethan sighed, closing his locker and resting his forehead against it "And then I'll have to tell them about you guys and they'll probably call me a psychopath and forbid me from talking to any of you ever again. Hell, they'll probably move house just to make sure we're no longer living next to Benny and his grandma." He turned around so he was facing Rory "But won't it look weird when I don't age? Like, at all? When I'm meant to be 21 and look like a 15-year-old kid?" so Benny had suspected right, odds were, Ethan had drunk human blood.

"Dude, that's a problem for the future you, when you're old enough to live on your own." Rory smirked "You'll have the money for it too."

"Yeah I guess…" and with that the two headed to class.

Benny had had every intension of joining them, making his excuses of his grandma being ill, but now, he might no longer need an excuse. He felt sick, physically sick. He had to piece together the new information in his mind. Ethan had, most likely, drunk blood. Granted, there was no evidence, but it had been implied. The council was paying him. What for, Benny had no idea, but he was being paid. Was he going to be working for them? But what use would a skinny, nerdy, 15-year-old boy, have to a council of very powerful and strong vampires? He felt nauseous since the only ideas his brain could come up with were very, very bad. Especially since Benny wasn't even sure if Ethan still had his seer abilities.

He quickly fled to the toilets and hid himself in a cubical before letting the spell down. He leaned against the door and slid to the floor, thinking. The thought of Ethan doing things for the council made him physically sick, sure, but it wasn't the only reason he was feeling sick.

When Ethan had said that it would be weird for his parents if he were 21 but looked 15 and they didn't know why, it sparked something inside Benny. That small spark in his mind had led to an avalanche of realisation. When Benny is 21, he'll look it, and a 21-year-old talking to a bunch of teenagers will look extremely fishy. A 21-year-old man claiming to be friends with a bunch of teenagers, even more so. A 40-year-old man being friends with teenagers was out of the question!

And just like that realisation hit him, he was being left behind. Well. Debatable really. He would be the one growing up and leaving them behind, but it felt a lot more like it was the other was around. It had already started happening. Benny wasn't like them, and they knew that. He was a spellmaster and they were vampires. They knew that and they were pushing him away, not hanging out with him as much unless they had to in school, and weren't telling him about this council thing. It scared him. It scared him a lot more than any of the supernatural bull ever had.

He had to get out of the school, he needed to clear his head. He quickly re-cast the spell and ran for the front entrance. He didn't stop running until he was well out of range of the school and hidden in the forest. He sat there for god knows how long, sifting through his spell book looking for something, anything that could keep him looking young forever.

Yeah, he didn't expect much either.

And his expectations were 100% on the money. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Zero.

He sighed, looking up at the sky by resting the top of his head on tree trunk. He was being pushed aside. Forgotten about. He was going to grow up and be left alone because, let's be honest, he wasn't going to make any more friends, it was a miracle he was friends with half the people he was friends with.

He really wanted to stay sat around feeling sorry for himself but he had a feeling that he'd already been there a long time, if the constant ringing from his phone in his bag was any indication. He ignored it in favour of a slow, quiet walk home.

When he got through the front door he was greeted by a cross looking grandma "The school called, said you haven't been in any of your classes all day." Wow, he really had been out there for a lot longer then he thought, emotional breakdowns could make you lose track of time "Where were you?"

"I…" He sat down, putting his head in his hands. Might as well be straight with it "Am I selfish?"

She gave him a confused look "Whatever are you-"

"Am I selfish? For wanting to be a vampire?"

"You want to be a vampire?" She sat down next to him now, putting an arm around him.

"I mean… yeah? No? I don't know. I don't want to be left behind! I like my magic, I like having a heartbeat, I like being alive! But I also like my friends! I don't want to be the only person that ages! I don't want to be the only person in serious danger when we fight! The others can regenerate! I'll die! It's just… Sarah tried so hard to be human again, she hates being a vampire, and here I am, human, living, but I want to sacrifice that just so I don't have to lose my friends… is that selfish?" Benny genuinely hated this feeling of not knowing what to do.

"Oh, Benny dear," she sighed "I understand, believe me I do, and I wish I knew how to help. But I don't."

"Great. Thanks for the advice." He sighed.

"What I mean to say is," she sighed "I don't think you'll be left behind by your friends, they care about you."

"They've already started leaving me behind! They're keeping secrets! They don't hang out with me after school! And when I'm older I won't be able to hang out with them without looking weird!" Benny ran a hand through his hair.

"It's your decision Benny, I will still love you no matter what you chose." Evelyn smiled slightly "Now stop feeling sorry for yourself and go email your teachers for homework." Benny sighed standing up and heading upstairs when he was stopped by his gran calling "Oh, Benny dear. Don't worry about your magic, you'll still have it if you turn."

Benny looked at his feet, heading to his room only to spot Ethan floating by his window. Yup, definitely drunk human blood. He screamed at first, not expecting his friend to have been floating there, before rushing to open the window.

"Ethan!" He hissed "What are you doing?! Use the front door like a normal person!"

"I'm not normal though." He smirked, he fricking smirked as if it were a joke "Can I come in?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Benny stepped aside, as Ethan crawled through the window.

"Where were you all day?" He asked, looking at Benny with worry.

"Just... around."

"You can't lie to me Benny, I know you."

Benny sighed, would Ethan hate him if he admitted he wanted to be a vampire?

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Benny asked, not even thinking before he spoke.

"What?" Ethan asked, confused.

"You haven't been walking to school with me, you haven't been hanging around with me after school, and you haven't been telling me what's been going on with you! Is it because you're a vampire now and I'm not?" It felt good to get that off his chest.

"Woah! Okay, slow down. I'll explain okay? I've been meeting with the council every morning and every evening. That's why I haven't been around much."

"Why have you been meeting with them?" Benny asked, concern filling his voice as previous thoughts of Ethan doing vampire jobs for the council fogged his mind again.

"They wanted to apologise, they felt guilty that I got bitten because of them." Ethan smirked.

"Wait. They felt guilty? Little-Miss-Fang-Fang and her lackeys felt guilty? You expect me to believe that?" Benny scoffed.

"Yeah, I was shocked too. Sarah convinced me to try and get some sort of compensation, they have a whole jury system and everything. For the past week I've been going to meetings and discussions, but they refused to even consider compensating me for any type of distress unless I was a full vampire… it didn't seem such a bad deal." Ethan looked sheepish.

"You… you drunk human blood… so you could get money?!" Benny demanded, anger clawed at his throat.

"It's not what you think! Sarah used her carrier guy to get the blood, it was bagged! It's not like I was going to be able to stay a fledgling forever anyway! You saw how that worked out for Sarah!" Ethan defended.

"Sarah drunk your blood to stop you becoming a vampire! That's different! What does she think about all this?!"

"She realised it wasn't really in her control! It wasn't in anyone's control!" Ethan was getting highly defensive now, and Benny was angry, it wasn't a great combination. Someone needed to get the conversation back to steady ground.

Benny sighed "Well, congrats on the money I guess… and the… being a vampire thing."

"Yeah… it's not as bad as you might think… it'll be worse when I'm older and have to explain in to my parents." Ethan sat down on Benny's bed, Benny joined him.

"If it helps, I'm not really looking forward to it either." Ethan gave him a confused look so he continues "I mean, when we're older I'll have to try and explain to people why I hang around with a bunch of teenagers."

Ethan's mouth made an 'o' shape, the picture of sudden realisation "I never thought about that."

"Yeah… I hadn't either until I heard you talking to Rory this morning by our lockers."

"I thought someone was watching us!" Ethan sounded like he had just discovered a new country "But I'm sure we can find a spell or something that you can use to appear younger when you meet up with us…"

Benny gave a dry laugh "Where do you think I was all day? The only one that's plausible is illegal." He flopped backwards on the bed so that he was spread on his back, legs still draped off the edge.

Ethan chuckled "Illegal? So, what there are police walking around looking for illegal magic?" Benny glared at him "Right, right. Back on topic. We'll still be friends with you Benny! Even if you look your actual age and we still look like teens."

"But it will look weird!" Benny protested "Imagine me trying to explain to people why I'm hanging around with a bunch of teenagers! And even if that wasn't an issue, you've already started pushing me away! You could have told me about all the council stuff but you didn't."

"I didn't really have time…" Ethan at least had the decency to look guilty "I think I can already guess the answer to this, but what do you want to do B?"

"You'd hate me if I told you what I've been thinking." Benny whispered "And if you didn't Sarah would."

"I get it. And I'm sure Sarah would too. And even if she didn't it's not her choice what you do." Ethan pulled out his phone "Want me to text her to prove it for you?"

Benny gave a small nod and Ethan started typing away on his phone. Minutes later his phone buzzed with a response.

"I told you she would understand. Look." Ethan turned his phone to face Benny so the spellmaster could read the response "We're your friends. And we get it."

Benny let out a shaky breath "Brings a new meaning to conforming." He chuckled.

"It's your decision B. I need you to be sure before I… you know." Ethan gave a reassuring smile, placing a hand on Benny's shoulder.

At that moment, Benny was certain. "Yeah. Let's do it."

He liked being human, but he liked his friends more.

"Welcome to team V." Ethan chucked, fangs glinting as he leaned towards Benny's neck.


End file.
